DS-2CD2552F-I Configuration Menu Garbled (5 of 7 cameras)

networkdaemon

networkdaemon

n3wb
Dec 30, 2024
9
2
USA
Long time lurker, new member, first time poster. Background - prior commercial installer (KY / Phil) and career IT type. In a testament to the wealth of knowledge among members, I have never felt the need to create an account until today. Someone here has always had a searchable solution.

That said, I have an issue with 5 of 7 Hikvision DS-2CD2552F-I cameras that recovered from a mandatory commercial rip-out. After factory reset, those 5 have a garbled, unclickable menu structure under the Configuration tab in the web GUI (most settings can still be configured from HiToolsDelivery or any of the older Hik software offerings). In an attempt to resolve, I flashed to R6 v5.5.82 from v5.4.5 (WR hardware, using EU FW). This did not resolve the issue. Of note, I also flashed the working cameras to v5.5.82 and the menu still works correctly. After all that, I took one of the garbled-menu cameras and TFTP flashed several older FWs, both from EU and US with no improvement. Are there components of the embedded web GUI that are not touched during the FW flash process, and if so, how do I fix that?

Pictures of the garbled and correct menus attached. Any thoughts?
 

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Sometimes 3 factory resets will take care of it too LOL. Folks here that can get "under the hood" of the firmware has seen that sometimes it takes a few resets for it to all take properly.

And depending on the age of some of those cameras, they may need Internet Explorer to display properly (yeah we know LOL) but it is still baked into Windows.
 
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wittaj said:
Sometimes 3 factory resets will take care of it too LOL. Folks here that can get "under the hood" of the firmware has seen that sometimes it takes a few resets for it to all take properly.

And depending on the age of some of those cameras, they may need Internet Explorer to display properly (yeah we know LOL) but it is still baked into Windows.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info - I will throw in a couple more factory resets on my "test camera" to see if that works - it has certainly been flashed enough! 100% on the IE stuff - thankfully, I have an old computer w/ IE. Also tried Edge in IE mode and the Hikvision browser included in some of their config products. Will keep my eye out for other responses and report back if the resets do anything. Thank you.
 
To update, multiple resets later - no luck.

Also, these all have the same production date and close serial numbers. The serials that are having issues are not sequential.
 
RESOLVED

Soooo . . . it got complex. Decided that I should try to take it back to factory (v5.4.5 according to the label), which presented the first problem. Could not downgrade via TFTP - file transfered, update never came, blocked. Eventually used the hikpack tool to change the version and date flags in the v5.4.5 package to the latest v5.5.82 and a date in 2020. Success via TFTP, but no IP, which a hard reset resolved. I then had a working configuration menu in the web GUI. So, to try to update, one version at a time. First, v5.5.0 via the web GUI, which required another hard reset to see the camera on the network again. After that, updates went as expected and I took it one release at a time (v5.5.5, v5.5.53, v5.5.82), checking the configuration menu in the web GUI after each flash. Overkill? - maybe, but the results are good! I can only assume that the FW update process was screwed up at some point in their existence. Anyway, what an inherited disaster! Now for the other four that are in the same state, but in one batch this time!
 
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wittaj said:
Sometimes 3 factory resets will take care of it too LOL. Folks here that can get "under the hood" of the firmware has seen that sometimes it takes a few resets for it to all take properly.

And depending on the age of some of those cameras, they may need Internet Explorer to display properly (yeah we know LOL) but it is still baked into Windows.
Click to expand...

In the aftermath of resolving this, a thought - have you had an opportunity to use HiToolsDelivery? Eliminates the need for IE in most cases and makes web GUI work much more user friendly, especially in some cases when switching between models of camera. Thanks again for your help on this one.
 
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